A great-grandmother is so obsessed with leopard skin that she has filled her home and her wardrobe with it - and even plans to be buried in the print.<br /><br />Ira Bowman, 76, first fell in love with the distinctive spotted pattern in the 60s when she bought a scarf on a shopping trip to Oxford Street in London.<br /><br />Over the years, her collection has spiralled and now her home in King's Lynn, Norfolk, is decorated with the animal print.<br /><br />Ira, whose 10-month-old great-granddaughter Minnie Smalley is already sporting the family colours, has even planned a leopard skin funeral.<br /><br />The former hairdresser, who also worked with special needs children before she retired said: "When I die and have a funeral, I don't want any black or any other colour, only leopard skin.<br /><br />"I will be wearing leopard skin in the box as well." <br /><br />Ira said that her first purchase of the pattern while training to become a hairdresser was "just instinct". <br /><br />She said: "I think it was 1964 or 1965 - it was just instinct. Then I got a leopard skin coat.<br /><br />"Then it went on to clothes, shoes, handbags - just about everything. <br /><br />"I bought another coat for £40 from Roman on the High Street the other day - I'm not OCD or whatever you call it, that's just how it is.<br /><br />"I just love leopard skin, that's how I've been all my life. I just think it's classy."<br /><br />As well as clothes and more shoes than you can shake a leopard's tail at, Ira brews her tea in a leopard skin teapot, before pouring it into leopard skin mugs at her home in King's Lynn.<br /><br />There are leopard skin vases, lampshades and rugs, while at night she snuggles down under her favourite pattern.<br /><br />Her love of leopard skin has also rubbed off on family, who say they are never at a loss as to what to get Ira when it comes to Christmas and birthdays.<br /><br />Granddaughter Betsy Stainsby, 23, turned her nan into an online sensation when a video tour of her bungalow she posted online went viral, with more than 160,000 views.<br /><br />Betsy, who has inherited Ira's love of leopard skin, said: "Every time I wear leopard print, it's an ode to Nan."<br /><br />Her mother Justine, Ira's eldest daughter, 53, added: "I just grew up with it, I thought it was normal.<br /><br />"We always know what to buy mum for her birthday and at Christmas."
